2005 Winning Projects                                                                              

 Asbestos Emergency Response Project
Libby, Montana

HONOR AWARD— OPERATIONS/MANAGEMENT

ENTRANT: CDM
ENGINEER IN CHARGE: Michael Malloy, P.E., DEE

• Immediate response produced fast results. Within 2 weeks of mobilization, CDM planned and implemented a program to collect, document, and ship more than 600 soil, bulk material, dust, and air samples to designated analytical laboratories. CDM collected more than 55,000 and analyzed more than 45,000 samples of various media.
• Integrated program execution. CDM’s approach to integrating the analytical testing and development; information management; investigation, design, and cleanup programs; and financial and schedule controls resulted in the team’s ability to achieve remarkable progress. In the 2004 season alone, CDM completed 220 pre-design property inspections, 33 contaminant screening investigations, 259 property cleanup designs, and oversaw the cleanup of 170 properties.  
• Communication strategy integrated staff. Within 48 hours CDM’s key technical resources and field team were on site, and quickly developed a plan that rapidly identified properties needing immediate cleanup, helping to save time and money and protect public health.
• Expanded response reduced health risks. CDM responsibilities also included investigation, work plan development, and removal oversight at 20 sister sites across the U.S. to integrate the lessons learned and experience from Libby into expedited cleanups at other locations.

• Staff consistency ensured quality. CDM’s long-term execution plan provided a core group of staff that made multiple-year commitments to the project, ensuring institutional knowledge remained with the program. CDM dispatched 150 staff during the course of the project, ensuring continuity and efficiency. Stringent health and safety oversight resulted in no incidents throughout 300,000 hours of service.
• Legally defensible information management system helped secure the largest single judgment in Superfund history. The system houses, manages, reports, and visually presents collected data to support risk assessments, legal actions, property status, cleanup identifications, planning, and community communication. It helped organize more than 1 million pieces of data, aiding EPA in securing the reimbursement of $54.5 million in investigation and cleanup costs.

• New EPA protocol set the standard for future asbestos contamination cleanups. CDM helped develop a new EPA protocol and standard operating procedure to respond to Superfund sites and quantify this toxic type of asbestos at lower detection levels. Based upon the program’s success, the new protocol will be the model for future asbestos contamination cleanups. It includes new approaches, strategies, trigger levels, analytical methods, cleanup criteria, and guidance documents.
• Innovative testing saved money. CDM’s testing approaches reduced the average per-sample cost by more than half (from $245 to $95). A CDM trend analysis allowed removal sampling to be reduced by more than 90 percent from an average 45 samples to 4.5 samples per property.
• Field-data entry application improved efficiency. The use of portable laptops improved the efficiency of field-data collection efforts by standardizing data entry and enabling users to link data to hand-drawn sketches and site photographs.
• New residential design criteria resulted in 80-percent savings. Innovative and cost-saving approaches, such as encapsulating asbestos-contaminated solids located in crawlspaces instead of excavating them, resulted in an 80-percent saving for each crawl space. A streamlined design approach reduced design costs by more than 75 percent.

• Largest single-season field investigation. In EPA’s history, the Libby, Montana project was the largest contaminant screening study ever conducted, assessing more than 4,200 properties and identifying 1,400 with elevated levels of contamination.
• Developed one-of-a-kind information management system. CDM developed a comprehensive system that includes an integrated database, field computer applications, and Web-based geographic information system that manages more than 1 million records. The system will provide a historical record of site conditions and activities for Libby residents.
• Streamlined removal reduced overall public exposure to asbestos. CDM’s design and cleanup approach produced an unprecedented 545 designs and led to the cleanup of 335 priority properties.

• Community involvement program maintained open communication lines. CDM opened and staffed an onsite public relations office within 48 hours. The program resulted in a 90-percent participation rate from local residents and business owners.
• Staff fully integrated into community. CDMers are now active members of the Libby community, through moving into the area, raising funds for the local school, and donating items to the food bank.
• Relocation assistance eased minds. CDM prepared site-specific, easily customizable information packets for residents for before and during a remedial relocation. Staff also interviewed candidate families, scheduled relocations, and arranged for accommodations and reimbursement.
• Residential satisfaction survey tracked progress. CDM developed and implemented a residential survey, collecting information used by EPA to demonstrate community support of the cleanup work. Post-removal survey results demonstrate a 91-percent satisfaction rate.